DECATUR -- The Kansas City Royals' first World Series appearance in 29 years has the whole nation buzzing about a franchise that was getting used to perennial playoff-misses.

Most people are making no bones about the fact that the bandwagon just arrived in late September.

"I've watched more Royals games the last two weeks than I have the last 20 years," said Decatur's Kevin Koslofski.

While that sentence is true for most baseball fans, it may come as a surprise from a man who played in the Royals organization for more than a decade.

"I'm kind of surprised I'm pulling for them as much as I am," said Koslofski, now an investment advisor in Decatur. "Once they started rolling I got on board, probably like a lot of other people."

Koslofski graduated from Maroa-Forsyth High School, and signed with the Royals in 1984.

"To this point, I spent 20 percent of my life in the Royals organization," said Koslofski, who also played part of one major league season with the Brewers in 1996. "Baseball is still a part of my daily routine."

He played in eight minor league seasons with Kansas City's farm system before the big club gave him a shot in 1992.

That year, he had the highlight of his career, clubbing his first major league homerun off of hall of fame pitcher Nolan Ryan. He has the newspaper clipping on his wall, the bat in a case in his living room, and someone even retrieved the ball for him. Koslofski got Ryan to sign it.

Aside from his life as a father and husband, he splits his time as a financial advisor with his duties as the coach of the Decatur Commodores.

He still keeps in touch with former Royals teammates -- Jeff Conine, Mike Macfarlane, and Brent Mayne to name a few.

The ones that remember his time in baseball like to ask him about the current team's run.

"Confidence, momentum, and obviously their defense is unbelievable," he said. "I didn't think the Royals would get this far. They've obviously got a tough task ahead of them now. It's never easy,"

This week, he'll be as big of a Royals fan as ever, and offered a prediction on the series ahead.

"I think if they can beat Bumgarner one time, they'll win the series," he said.

The Royals begin World Series play against the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday night. First pitch is at 7pm CT on FOX.